EVGA SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified 1500W Power Supply Review

Packaging and Parts

The EVGA SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified power supply arrived securely packed inside a large retail box showcasing the unit’s features and specifications.

The power supply is protected by thick foam inserts and wrapped in a black cloth bag with gold colored lettering. Inside the main carton are two more, smaller boxes, one for the power supply and one for all the cables.

In total, the box contains the NEX1500, a heavy-duty (3-12 AWG) power cord, mounting screws, a multi-language User’s Manual, a black nylon pouch, and four bags of cables.

Looks like you haven't read it as well. He's referring to the fact that the San Ace is rated at 4500 RPM, not that it's a 120mm fan (no shit).

You're right though, he's incorrect that it's going to be loud. Given the loads people will be running on this unit, for most the fan won't go excess 1500 RPM or so, so it won't be loud (given the quality of the fan as well).

It's good that they're giving you one of the best 25mm thick 120mm fans.

If you aren't bothered by noise, you can just connect it directly to your board through a 2/3/4-wire expander or hook it up to a controller, then crank it up to make the unit run as cool as possible. Or take it out and use it on your CPU HS or as your case exhaust or something.

On the other hand, this unit doesn't live up to hype eVGA has been making (given the ludacris price and minor rail's regulation). AX1200i has better electrical performance and a cleaner topology. Then again, which eVGA product has last really lived up to the hype? It was either the 4-way X58 board or the Classy 285. eVGA has lost their previous workers and they're just selling their name to the uneducated masses.

Up until 800W the fan doesn't exceed 1000 RPM. So at most loads, other parts on the machine would definately be making more noise. And no, 1500 RPM isn't "very loud". Your understandment is, frankly, false and dumb since you're a silent freak.

Too bad you apparently can't properly associate RPMs and fan noise, I have actually measured multiple fans' RPMs witch tachometer and can say that none of them was even close to being quiet at 1500 RPM if 120 mm or larger, no matter the bearing.

Not exceeding 1000 RPM isn't exactly a feat either, at 1000 RPMs most 120mm and larger fans are easily audible from a metre away.

I actually can, and did. You can't. Do you actually think over what you post? No fan was close to being quiet at 1500 RPM? SP120, Silent Wings or Phobya's? You know the Phobya's are rated at 25dB at 1500 RPM, right? Yet you're telling me you can't find any fan quiet at 1500 RPM. You can save your doh...

At 1000 RPM pretty much any decent fan is relatively quiet in a case, especially if you're a meter away from your case. So quiet most the time those kind of fans are nearly inaudible and make your room %90-95 quiet.

You're way too obsessed with low noise you mix your opinion with those so called "facts". How can you even call your opinion facts? All you do is to tell me any 1500 RPM fan isn't quiet FOR YOU. Noise is subjective. Unless something is completely silent or extremely low noise, you come up everytime as if the fan is hurting your butt.

You believe RATINGS? Good luck with that. Plenty of individual fan tests (like @xbitlabs or @OCN by user Tator Tot in particular) proved most of ratings are inflated, be it when it comes to CFM or noise. Actually, if you were that good, you'd known that statement "fan is rated @x dB @y RPM" is meaningless. What was the distance it was measured from? What was the apparatus? What was background noise? What was tonal character of output noise? You do realize some frequencies are perceived as louder than others at the same SPL.

No, none of these you mentioned are quiet (or can be called as such by an individual without at least partial hearing loss) in the conditions you specify, I've actually heard Silent Wings@1200 rpm, it is not significantly quieter than any of more standard stuff. Sorry dude, fact is NONE of the fans can be truly quiet in those conditions without hurting the airflow - it was always like this and don't expect it to change anytime soon. Noctua experimented with ANC system, but doesn't seem it went anywhere.

Yes, I do realize all those conditions that have to be taken into account, and the fact that you can't simply go alone by dB values (as you don't know the background noise done on the tests etc.).

I was simplifying things. But, one thing I very well know for a fact is that, you're a silent freak. Your understandment of quietness is way different than that of a normal person. If you took 10 people and asked them whether a Silent Wings is quiet at 1200 RPM from a meter away in a well absorbed case, 8 of them would tell you it is. You have issues if you think it's the other way around.

And well, none of your garbage has much to do with the fan used on this unit, do they? I suggest you to go back to SilentPC where you can hang out with those like you who get butt hurt by the smallest noise in a fan. For a normal person, a CM Blade Master at 2000 RPM would be loud, not a friggin San Ace at a mere 1000 RPM.

And, if you read the reviewer, he agrees with my statement. Or if you read it from Oklahoma Wolf, who's one of the, if not the most knowledable person in this business, he also agrees that the San Ace used on this unit IS NOT loud at 1000 RPM. Stuart dumbass doesn't though. But, who cares about that guy's opinion anyway?

Nowhere did I state, what should be considered as quiet by anyone, I have stated mentioned fans are plainly audible in described situation. It is not the matter of subjectivity, it is matter of having normal hearing. If someone isn't bothered by it, good for them, it is however plainly audible, period, and no amount of insults you toss can change it. You can ask random people all they want if they accept such noise output, and they might say yes, but then put a quieter unit (like, say, semi-fanless Seasonic, be-quiet! P10 or some Enermax with TB fan) and then ask them if they hear the difference. And guess what? Unless they have significant hearing loss, they will. And if you pay premium for the unit (as it is clearly the case with this unit), you can expect it to be good in all respects and not have to compromise in areas such as noise output, especially when there already are units on the market not forcing you to make a compromise.

And BTW funny that you mention OKW for noise evaluation, as all reviewers @JG explicitly state they are NOT doing actual noise evaluation, because it is rendered impossible by noise made by fans in load testers. So nice try.

Let's see, you said a Silent Wings isn't quieter than "standart stuff". That's bullshit. I put my ear next to an Akasa Viper 140mm (HDB fan with curved blades), then, next to your regular Yate Loon D14-BH12. Both fans were brand new, and the Viper was MUCH quieter than the Yate Loon. Hell, I couldn't even hear the Viper over a single FM121 with the system on my table. The Yate Loon, on the other hand, significantly made air pushing and rotation noise.

Also, I didn't call the fan on this unit "quiet", so you fail there as well. It isn't a quiet fan by any means. But, at 1000 RPM, it isn't "loud" either. In your first post, you claimed that it's "unbearably loud". It isn't. That's BS as well. Now you say it's "plainly audible".

I mentioned OKW because he uses the unit in his own machine and says it's the part that makes the least noise. So again, it's not "loud" below 1000 RPM. Period.

1) You have not even stated what RPMs these fans were spinning. In case it wasn't obvious, I was talking about situations where both fans are at similar speeds and same amount of blades (fans with more blades are usually worse at those speeds), but not lower than 1000-1200 RPM (and I've explicitly stated the latter value previously, but you conveniently chose to ignore it). If you wonder, why, that's because of bearing noise, which in case of lower quality stuff (esp. BB/2BB fans) can easily be heard and possibly sound more annoying than movement of air itself. But @1000-1200 RPM you're gonna hear that sound of air regardless, it doesn't matter if you use Silent Wings, Enermax TB Silence, San Ace, YL, Adda, whatever...

2) That was epic reading comprehension fail on your part. If you hadn't noticed (or again, conveniently ignored it) in my first post I was talking about situation UNDER LOAD. And under load this PSU's fan certainly does quite a bit more than 1000 RPM, in fact over 3 times more than that.

3) Again, completely meaningless, until you actually heard said machine and evaluate. One thing we can be sure of: if such PSU is the least noisy component of a PC, rest isn't pleasant sounding.

1) I'm not a moron to test one fan at 2800 RPM and the other at 1600. Both were at 1500 RPM set though a FC8, and the Viper has the S shaped blades was so much more quieter then the Yate Loon there was not even a comparison. If you're, to, compare regular stuff with such high quality FDB fans, you WILL find out that the latter is SIGNIFICANTLY less noisier. Since you can't seem to take it, I'll make it easier for you. So to repeat, you said "Silent Wings isn't significantly quieter than standart stuff". Yeah, right.

2) Yes, under load. Do you have any idea how much power a 680 Tri Ivy Bridge setup pulls at average? Around 500-600W. Even with a fourth card you aren't going to exceed 800W, so the fan will keep staying at 1000 RPM. You need an OC'ed 480 Quad setup with an SR-2 plus some more extra's to actually max out the fan. And, if you're running such setup, the fans you'd be running to dissipate all that heat would make just as much noise as the PSU's fan anyway.

3) I don't need to hear that machine to evaluate. It has 2 or 3 low noise quality 120mm fans and a WindForce card... there's no way in hell those parts wouldn't be "pleasant sounding". So if that "such PSU" is making less noise than those fans and that card, then the fan in that such PSU isn't actually as loud as you make it out to be.

You're wrong, and are a silent freak. These kinds of posts only add more fuel to the mayhem. About time you realized this. If you were smart enough you could put yourself into a "normal person" s shoes and not look at everything from your own butt noise obsessed perspective.

As anyone can see, even stuff like TB Silence, which is one of the top-notch fans and emits virtually no bearing noise at low RPMs, at 1500 RPMs becomes pretty loud, registering 50 dBA in applied procedure. But screw dBAs - what kind of sound it makes, is plainly audible in the video.

Even Noctuas, which are also regarded top-notch by some (but not myself) emit plainly audible drone even at 900 rpm (second half of the other video). That's actually subjectivelly worse than most of fans I've heard at that speed, personally I'd take lower end sleeve bearing YL or Adda over this.

And:

"Yes, under load. Do you have any idea how much power a 680 Tri Ivy Bridge setup pulls at average? Around 500-600W. Even with a fourth card you aren't going to exceed 800W, so the fan will keep staying at 1000 RPM. You need an OC'ed 480 Quad setup with an SR-2 plus some more extra's to actually max out the fan. And, if you're running such setup, the fans you'd be running to dissipate all that heat would make just as much noise as the PSU's fan anyway."

Great, so you just proved yourself this PSU is unnecessary in such machine and we can get sth more fitting power-wise, cheaper and quieter to boot too. Examples? I believe I've already mentioned them. Why should we bother with 1000 rpm San Ace, when we can get 0 rpm San Ace in Seasonics or 330-450 rpm Enermax TB Silence or bq Silent Wings in other PSUs? (all idle values)

Introducing some of my own? Oh the irony. Do you even go over what you post? Or do you just go straight ahead spreading out nonsensical, unrealistic posts? You're talking out of your ass.

You completely ignored the entire condition I told in one of my previous posts (a meter AWAY from a "well absorbed case") then went ahead and posted the video of a NOISE ISOLATED room with the fan put right next to the microphone of the video camera... really, what the hell else did you expect?

No, in no real world condition what you posted is going to happen. Anybody who cares about low noise would put some distance between himself and his machine, would NOT have just one fan in the entire machine... and would also use noise dampening carpets, anti vibration screws etc. to further isolate the case. Much less a regular user's ambient noise would also be WAY more than that of that noise isolated clean room, making your example completely unrealistic, nonsensical and again, dumb. Maybe that video satisfies your OCD, but, like I said, it doesn't reflect any reality, making your "no fan could be quiet at 1500 RPM" theory blank. Also that the way you see "quietness" is way different than a normal persons, as I pointed more than once before, you're further botching your claims yourself.

About those Noctua's that're regarded "top-notch" ... Noctua fans are overpriced, overrated pieces of shit. They neither push much H20 in. per cube/CFM nor are the highest quality fans out there. Not to mention that they look like shit (literally). A $9 Nidec Beta V completely blows away a $25 Noctua fan in whichever way you look at it.

And... in no line I said anybody should bother with this shitty, overpriced unit. The only case where this unit would be needed would be an eVGA fanboy machine consisting of eVGA cards that all require triple 8-pin's to boot, and an SR-2 which also requires multiple PCI-E plugs, making the entire package needing a load of PCI-E connectors. In that case, the Silent Pro M2 1500, or the SR-2 unit or even doing custom PCI-E cables would be a better option than getting this unit. In formal words, there's no point in getting this unit unless it's for someone's eVGA fanboyism.

And what does any of that have to do with the noise level of the fan used on this unit? You said it's loud. Hell, you said that to OKW. OKW showed you the image of his system, with just two or three quality, low noise fans and his 6870 WindForce 3, and told you that it's the part that makes the least noise in his machine. And here am I,
repeating this stupid ass shit.

It gets funnier every second. Love how you have no idea what you are talking about, yet keep going "rather" aggressively. You could be a politician ;)

Anyway, you seriously think fan like that @1500 RPM will not stand out in AVERAGE machine, nevermind particularily quiet one? Maybe I should leave it at "ignorance is bliss" then. Though it's not so much of a bliss, when someone reads it, actually believes it, and makes a buy based on that...

"And what does any of that have to do with the noise level of the fan used on this unit? You said it's loud"

And this is where point becomes moot. It wasn't ME who said it's loud - not first anyway. Crmaris @TPU did. All I did is reiterating his statement, because I have no reason not to believe him:

techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_NEX1500/6.html

Actually, it's even louder than I originally remembered. I said earlier about 3k rpm@load, at full load in fact it does ~50% more than that. Quiet indeed ;)

Yet you managed to find it flameworthy and kept on flaming like I murdered your entire family or sth.

No, again, actually YOU don't know what you're taking about. And are constantly going around spouting out BS. I actually though about getting in to politics, but, you know, since I live in the U.S and all...

A fan like that, at 1000 RPM and NOT at 1500 RPM (you're going out of topic again) does NOT stand out as you can, if you can that is, see from OKW's personal machine. Nobody is going to buy this piece of shit unless they don't know what they're doing. But, that's not because of the fan but rather, because of it's sky shot pricing, stuffed up internals and sub-par performance and of course, because it's an eVGA piece of shit. eVGA IS, without a doubt, "THE" most fanboy brand around and is also putting out the worst shit out in the market right now, which makes me feel sad about anybody who buys into eVGA.

Fuck Crmaris. He doesn't know shit to begin with. I double facepalm everytime I read his reviews. First, because of his general lack of knowledge on OEM's, second, because his English is still terribad after graduating from some very high skill requiring shit school and having written a ton of reviews. He has terrible language skills, and, IS a moron for giving a recommendation for this piece of shit.

If you're taking his word, then we should also SUGGEST his unit since it got his recommendation and a high score... right?

OKW has this unit in his everyday comp, along with 2-3 high quality, LOW-SPEED fans and a WindForce card... annndddd, guess what? It IS the least noise making peripheral in his machine. Ta da! Surprise!

3000 RPM at load? What the fuck are you smoking? Didn't we just went over that even 680 Quad doesn't continuously pull over 700-800W of power, and that EVEN UNDER some of the HEAVIEST loads, the fan of this unit still keeps within 1000 RPM, and that isn't not really loud? Oh well, nevermind.

I do find YOU flameworthy. You continue to act like a moron, disregard all my statements, and change the subject/put the blame on something else. I mean, just why? This is the way your posts always seem to end up.

Oh and, "like I murdered your entire family or "STH"". Oh, really? You know what? I was reading up on JGuru the other day, and guess what I read? You said Corsair uses ONG Hua fans on the low end... there's NO Ong Hua fan you dumb shit. It's "Hong Hua". You don't know shit about fans.

You're a moron, and should retrain from posting here all together. This is going to be the end of the road I believe.

"A fan like that, at 1000 RPM and NOT at 1500 RPM (you're going out of topic again) does NOT stand out as you can, if you can that is, see from OKW's personal machine."

Do you have access to OKW's personal machine to make this evaluation? Do I? Highly doubtful as for you and "no" as for me. HE doesn't mind, but nobody can tell him (or anyone) if he should. His choice, none of my or your business.

Except I have actually ran a PSU with such RPMs under load in actual machine, and it DOES become noticeable over rest of the system. PSU in question? Corsair GS600 Bronze. Rest of the fans? Intel stock HSF for G530 and double fan XFX 7770.

@Crmaris, I highly advise to make such comment on TPU forums, not here. For what it's worth, I don't care if unit gets recommendation from specific reviewer, I can make my own mind up from results and pricings. How about you?

"3000 RPM at load? What the fuck are you smoking? Didn't we just went over that even 680 Quad doesn't continuously pull over 700-800W of power, and that EVEN UNDER some of the HEAVIEST loads, the fan of this unit still keeps within 1000 RPM, and that isn't not really loud? Oh well, nevermind."

How about you actually read the review? This one, I mean:

"At max power the fan is spinning at ~3,700 rpm according to the SuperNOVA software. With the fan forced to 100% speed (using DIP switch #4) I recorded 64.3 dBA and 3,972 rpm."

And if you YOURSELF say that kind of power isn't needed for the 680s, why the hell do you even bother mentioning that setup again in supposed relevance to reviewed PSU?

"I do find YOU flameworthy. You continue to act like a moron, disregard all my statements, and change the subject/put the blame on something else. I mean, just why? This is the way your posts always seem to end up."

If you think so, your reading comprehension skills need a serious improvement. I have so far been quite explicit on my points and in fact even made a clear (or so I thought) distinction between "plainly audible" 1000 RPM, and "loud as hell" ~4k RPM this unit makes under load. Yet you keep on mixing two up and keep on flaming due to your own confusion.

"I was reading up on JGuru the other day, and guess what I read? You said Corsair uses ONG Hua fans on the low end... there's NO Ong Hua fan you dumb shit. It's "Hong Hua". You don't know shit about fans"

You're gonna love that one... read PCPer's own review of TX950:

"The dual ball bearing fan (Ong Hua HA1425H12B-Z) is an alternate fan that is used when the regular Yate Loon Electronics D14BH-12 fans are in short supply."

Are you gonna flame Lee too over that? Or are you gonna somehow backpedal from it?

Well, if it's end of the road for you, too bad - so late you said that. You really should have stopped earlier instead of making such a fool of yourself.

do YOU have the access to OKW's machine? All you ever did was to make ASSUMPTIONS that the fan it loud.

The fan used on the GS600 is, AFAIK, either a low quality Hong Hua or a Yate Loon with MUCH worse bearing noise and FAN NOISE than a top quality San Ace. Period. The two fans have nothing to do w/ each other, just like your BS fan nothing to do with the fan used on this unit.

I CAN make my own mind too, and DID in fact in my first reply by speaking against this shitty ass unit.

As for making a comment on Crmaris, I can't make a comment on TPU. I turned my TPU account into a guest account by changing both my pass a registered e-mail to something random, NEVER to log back in again. It's a site full of STUPID AMD fanboy, you know.

I do mention the multiple 680 machine because that is WHAT whoever buys this unit would be using, and SINCE the fan DOES NOT go beyond 1000 RPM up until 800W, the noise of this fan it, as was pointed many times before, a NON-ISSUE...

I don't mix anything. You said this unit is "unbearably loud UNDER LOAD". Under what load dummy? Load tester load or PC load? Under any sensible PC load this unit does NOT go beyond 1000 RPM...

I'm going going to backpedal from anything.

There's no such company called "Ong Hua". Those fans are made by HONG HUA... the H in the logo of Hong Hua doesn't pop up to the eye, so it reads like Ong Hua.

Goes to show how knowledable you're on fans.

For a "I tested THIS fan, THAT fan. DID YOU!?!?". You're absolutely clueless about fans.

I guess I could respond to the rest, but it doesn't matter (mostly because you could have avoided posting that by actually reading what I wrote earlier). You dig yourself deeper and deeper and I'll just point it out:

"I'm going going to backpedal from anything.

There's no such company called "Ong Hua". Those fans are made by HONG HUA... the H in the logo of Hong Hua doesn't pop up to the eye, so it reads like Ong Hua.

Goes to show how knowledable you're on fans."

Since you don't take that back, by that logic you also flame Lee Garbutt, who is (in case you didn't notice that either) the reviewer on this site, who has also wrote "Ong Hua" in TX950's review. Great, keep expanding the list of reviewers you're flaming.

"I CAN make my own mind too, and DID in fact in my first reply by speaking against this shitty ass unit."

And since I clearly did not defend it, you basically made a fool out of yourself (eg. by flaming Crmaris and Lee) for nothing. Good job.

Guess I'm out, feel free to reply, but if I were you, I'd start with apologizing to all reviewers you were flaming.

Yes, because you came to a point where you ran out of moves. See this noob? He's owned. Left and right. That's it. It's over it for him. :D I love how you got ripped off to pieces and just kept on blabbering more nonsense one after the other. :)

I didn't flame Lee, I've no reason to since I didn't read the TX950 review on here. Lee isn't a fan professional, he's a PSU reviewer and doesn't really need to know about fans as much as the guys over say SilentPCReview. All he needs to do is to provide the info of a fan used on a PSU, nothing more, nothing less. He doesn't take out the fans and test them individually.

I read that from you and did what I wanted to because you, the entire time, go blabbering about how knowledgeable you are on fans and how you tested a a shitload of fans one by one. But then it came to a point where it was clear that you're full of shit.

I like Lee, but I have many reason to flame Crmaris, though, that is also WAY off topic so I'm not going to get into that too much. That's just say he glorified the NEX1500 so much that he even went as far as "if you want the absolute best, this is that PSU". That was enough for me to flame him all on it's own.